A firework lit, a child shot. Israel’s use of force under scrutiny

2024-03-21 06:42:02

JERUSALEM (AP) — A 12-year-old boy lights the fuse of a long firework in East Jerusalem and launches it into the air. Then, just before he explodes and lights up the night sky with a red flash, he is shot in the chest by Israeli police and collapses.

A video of the last moments of Rami Halhouli’s life has circulated on social media for days. Human rights activists say it sheds light on the rise of Palestinians, including dozens of children, killed without justification by Israeli forces since October 7.

Halhouli’s family said the boy was hit by a bullet fired in his direction from a police watchtower above the Shuafat refugee camp. Halhouli, his brother, and four of his friends, his family explained, were setting off fireworks to celebrate the end of another day of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month marked by fasting between dawn and dusk.

Israeli police said the officer who fired the shot acted appropriately, citing rules that allow shooting someone who points a pyrotechnic product at another person in a life-threatening way. The Israeli government said the incident was under investigation.

Ali Halhouli, the boy’s father, was home when he heard the gunshot, and then his son calling for his mother. “When I ran out I saw him lying face down,” he said.

Violence in East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank has spiked since October 7, when Hamas militants staged a surprise attack on southern Israel and unleashed a brutal war in the Gaza Strip.

At least 435 Palestinians in East Jerusalem and the West Bank have been killed by Israeli fire since then, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Many have been shot in armed confrontations, others for throwing stones at soldiers. It appears that some posed no obvious threat.

About 100 of those 435 dead were children under 18, according to the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem. In 60 of those cases, the group noted, there appeared to be no justification for using deadly force. This includes cases where teenagers or younger children were throwing stones or participating in protests.

“It is clear that there is a trigger-happy attitude among Israeli soldiers and border police officers, and that also affects Palestinian children,” said Sarit Michaeli, a spokesperson for B’Tselem.

“As for the specific case in the Shuafat refugee camp,” he said, “a small child posed no threat to a heavily armed border police officer.”

Halhouli, the youngest of seven children, was shot around 8 p.m. on March 12 in a trash-strewn alley outside his home, his father said. He was regarding 60 meters (200 feet) from the Israeli police tower. Video of the incident shows Halhouli pointing the firework in the approximate direction of the tower, but not directly at the structure.

Police acknowledged the deadly shooting that night and said their forces had returned fire following fireworks were launched at the tower. On Monday and Tuesday nights, Palestinian protesters in the camp had thrown Molotov cocktails and fireworks at Israeli forces, according to police.

Now everyone stays away from the alley, said Ibrahim Halhouli, a 16-year-old relative of the slain boy, standing at the spot where the shooting occurred.

“We are afraid,” he said, looking up at the tower.

Shuafat, where some 60,000 Palestinians live, has long been a hotbed of tension.

It is a poor, densely populated neighborhood that has no municipal services despite being located within the city’s borders. It is the only Palestinian refugee camp in Jerusalem, and several militants involved in attacks once morest Israelis were from there. It is separated from the rest of Jerusalem by a heavily manned security checkpoint, and Israeli forces frequently raid the countryside to detain suspected militants.

After the shooting, Ali Halhouli said his other children took the body to a medical center in Shuafat, where staff certified him dead. Desperate, the family found an ambulance to take him to Hadassah Hospital, one of Israel’s largest medical centers, where doctors said the bullet had hit his heart.

Ali Halhouli recalled that one of the doctors said: “the child is dead, they brought him dead.” A police officer then arrived at the scene and said they had to take the body to an Israeli forensic institute for an autopsy.

Ali Halhouli, 61, said he was in limbo for days. On three occasions he was contacted by different police officers who told him that the body of his son would soon be returned to him.

On one occasion he was told that the funeral had to have fewer than 40 attendees or he would receive a fine. Funerals for murdered Palestinians often lead to violent protests. The body was finally handed over to the family on Sunday night and buried the next morning, he said.

Makhash, the Israeli Justice Ministry agency that investigates police conduct, told the AP that the investigation into the officer who shot the boy was still ongoing.

Soldiers and agents are rarely prosecuted for killing Palestinians in the line of duty. According to the Israeli legal rights group Yesh Din, the last time a police officer was charged with murder was in 2021, when an officer shot dead an unarmed autistic Palestinian in Old Jerusalem. The police officer was acquitted in 2023, the group said.

The day following Rami Halhouli died, a provocateur in the Israeli government that oversees the police said the officer who shot him should be decorated rather than investigated. Ultranationalist Itamar Ben Gvir, Minister of National Security, also called the boy a terrorist without offering evidence.

“Terrorist, a 12-year-old boy?” said Ali Halhouli, clearly hurt by the comment.

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